E-MAIL WOES

Mekler and Deahl have also announced the 1999 SANDBURG-LIVESAY ANTHOLOGY CONTEST, for poems of any length up to 70 lines, with a first prize of US$200 and second prize of US$100. The $15 entry fee (payable to "Mekler & Deahl, Publishers") covers up to 10 poems, and your entry must be postmarked by 31 October 1999. All entrants will receive a copy of the anthology, with entrants with poetry in the anthology receiving one additional copy. Winners will be notified in spring 2000. Please address entries to: The Sandburg-Livesay Anthology Contest, Mekler & Deahl, Publishers, 237 Prospect Street South, Hamilton, ON L8M 2Z6, Canada (tel: (905) 312-1779; fax: (905) 312-8285; e-mail: meklerdeahl@globalserve.net). Sing for the Inner Ear, the anthology of 1997 award-winning poems, is available from Mekler and Deahl for $16.

The results of the 1998 BSFA AWARDS were announced on Sunday 4 April 1999 at the Adelphi Hotel in Liverpool. In a very close contest the results were: BEST NOVEL: The Extremes by Christopher Priest (Runner-up: To Hold Infinity by John Meaney); BEST SHORT FICTION: "La Cenerentola" by Gwyneth Jones (Interzone 136) (Runner-up: "Vulpheous" by Eric Brown (Interzone 129)); BEST ARTWORK: "Lord Prestimion" by Jim Burns (Cover Interzone 138) (Runner-up: "Jedella Ghost" by Dominic Harman (Cover Interzone 135)). For further information, please contact Chris Hill, BSFA Awards Administrator, The Bungalow, 27 Lower Evingar Road, Whitchurch, Hants RG28 7EY (e-mail: awards@sandman.enterprise-plc.com).

The MINISTRY OF WHIMSY has just launched its new publisher/editor roundtable at http://www.mindspring.com/~toones/roundtable. The Ministry sent out the same 10 questions to over a dozen influential independent presses and has posted the answers in a roundtable format – users of the site can view all the responses to a single question or can view one publisher/editor's entire interview. The interview questions tackle issues such as the survival of independent presses in a world of super book chains and mega-publishers. Publishers represented on the site include Four Walls Eight Windows, Cambrian Publications, Wordcraft of Oregon, and many more. Noted avant-pop author Lance Olsen and highly-praised magazine publishers Chris Reed and David Pringle are among those who contribute related articles. In the coming months, the Ministry plans to add many more interviews and articles, so that the site can become a clearinghouse for discussion of issues vital to the viability of the independent press. Publishers that would like to be represented should contact the Ministry at jeffvan@freenet.tlh.fl.us. Although the main set of interviews focus on book publishers, the Ministry will be expanding the site to include magazine publishers as well. The Ministry's parent site, http://www.mindspring.com/~toones/ministry.html, has new content on it as well, including new reviews and more interviews and articles.

Wes White has launched a ZINES MESSAGE BOARD on Delphi which is intended to become a useful resource for all small press editors and readers. For further information go to http://www.delphi.com/zineplace, or contact Wes at octopuspowder@hotmail.com.

The PARTNERS WRITING GROUP has announced an Open Poetry Competition with a first prize of £200 and winning poems to be published in their magazine The Word. There's a £3 per poem entry fee; the deadline for submissions is 20 September 1999. Their 'Writing Partners' division has also announced a short story competition on the theme of the forthcoming alignment of the planets known as the 'Celestial Cross'. Entries must be less than 2,000 words, the fee is £5 per story, and the closing date is 10 August 1999. First prize is £100, and the winning story will again be published in The Word. For further information on both competitions, or to purchase a copy of The Word (£3:50 post paid), contact Partners, 289 Elmwood Avenue, Feltham, Middlesex TW13 7QB.

Novellist Thomas E. Kennedy is among the tutors at this year's AMSTERDAM WRITING WORKSHOPS organised by the John Adams Institute from 22-26 June 1999. Author of 13 books and winner of the Pushcart Prize, Kennedy will be teaching the 'Craft of Fiction' strand of the workshops, which serves as a general introduction to fiction writing. For further information and a registration form, contact the Academy of Literary Arts 't Colophon, Reijnier Vinkeleskade 53, 1071 SW Amsterdam, The Netherlands (tel: +31-20-670-7077; fax: +31-20-670-7808; e-mail: colofon@xs4all.nl).

Paul Kincaid has stepped down as Reviews Editor of VECTOR, the critical journal of the British Science Fiction Association (BSFA). All books for review should now be sent to Steve Jeffery, BSFA Reviews Editor, 44 White Way, Kidlington, Oxon OX5 2XA (e-mail: peverel@aol.com).

CHANGES OF ADDRESS

CAMBRIAN PUBLICATIONS have moved to P.O. Box 41220, San Jose, CA 95160-1220, USA (e-mail [unchanged]: orders@cambrianpubs.com; website [unchanged]: http://www.cambrianpubs.com).

RAZORBLADE PRESS and RAW NERVE magazine have moved their website to http://fugazi.net/razor.

ALBEDO 1 #18, A4, 44pp, Ir£2:95 (4/Ir£10; UK 4/£10; Europe 4/Ir£16/$24; r.o.w. 4/Ir£20/$30) from Albedo 1, 2 Post Road, Lusk, Co. Dublin, Ireland (e-mail: bhry@iol.ie; http://www.iol.ie/~bobn). The award-winning Irish SF/F/H magazine serves up fiction by Hugh Cook, Nigel Fletcher, Brian Stableford, Harvey O'Brien, and Tais Teng, plus an interview with Walter John Williams.

BLANKSPACE Mar 99, A4, 14pp, IR£1 (free to SFI members) from David Stewart, 43 Eglinton Road, Dublin 4, Ireland (e-mail: dstewart@iol.ie). The newsletter of Science Fiction Ireland, with reviews, news and developments with a particular emphasis on film- and TV-related SF.

DRAGON'S BREATH #57, A4, 4pp, and #58, A4, 2pp, available for one SAE per issue (12/£2:50; Europe 12/£4; r.o.w. 12/£5:50) from Tony Lee, Pigasus Press, 13 Hazely Combe, Arreton, Isle of Wight PO30 3AJ. Capsule reviews of SF/F/H small press and media-related publications from all over the world, densely packed with a swift content overview and Zine Kat's wry observations.

EYE #20, A4, 64pp, $3:95 (6/$14; Canada 6/$20; r.o.w. 6/$36) from EYE, 301 S. Elm Street, Suite 405, Greensboro, NC 27401-2636, USA (e-mail: lisa@eyemag.com; http://www.eyemag.com). Articles and underground research on pop culture, music, technology, TV and film, fringe culture, and bizarre science, this time looking at 8-track tapes, the US security industry, the truth about Alcoholics Anonymous, serial killer letters, and the UN and the drug war, plus profiles of the Bindlestiff Family Cirkus and author Peter Sotos.

GRUE #19, A5, 100pp p/b, $5 (3/$15; overseas 3/$20) from Hell's Kitchen Productions, P.O. Box 370, Times Square Station, New York, NY 10108-0370, USA (e-mail: nadramia@panix.com). A welcome return for this stalwart of the horror small press, with its successful blend of gritty realism tempered with off-the-wall stories that leave a lasting impression. This issue's fiction comes from John Everson, Kevin Filan, Carla Jean Eardley, A.R. Morlan, Rick Kleffel, Wayne Allen Sallee, Louis Maistros, Brett Bogart, Michael Ryan Zimmermann, and John Maclay, plus poetry by Denise Dumars, Robert Frazier, Lisa Lepovetsky and others.

MASQUE NOIR #2, A4, 56pp, Aus$5:00 from Rod Marsden, P.O. Box 19, Spit Junction, NSW 2088, Australia. A new "new wave avant-garde publication", Masque Noir embraces high adventure, the glory days of the pulps, mystery, suspense, gumshoe action, horror and SF. Fiction comes from Barbara A. Custer, Jens H. Altmann, Don Boyd, Rod Marsden, James Mac, Lyn McConchie, Gerard Daniel Houarner, Keith Rex, D. Sandy Nielsen, Geoff Jackson, and Neil K. Henderson, plus an article on American detective fiction by Richard Reeve.

NASTY PIECE OF WORK #11, A5, 92pp, £1:50 (4/£5:50; USA 4/$15) from David A. Green, 20 Drum Mead, Petersfield, Hants GU32 3AQ. A well-presented magazine of horror fiction and poetry with work from Carol Anne Davis, Joel Lane, Paul Pinn, jon g, Mark McLaughlin, Robert Bagnall, Helen Kitson, Tim Lebbon, Simon Bestwick, Steve Conway, Kathryn Hannah Trent, Joan McCallum, Darren Floyd, Elle Ludkin, D.F. Lewis, Jim Lee, Monika J. O'Rourke, Liz Bentley, Marni Scofidio Griffin, Heather de Rosevere, Marie Williams, Clare Gunther, Paul Finch, and Rhys Hughes.

NEW YORK REVIEW OF SCIENCE FICTION #126 and #127, A4, 24pp, $3:50 each (12/$31; Canada 12/$36; r.o.w. 12/$44) from Dragon Press, P.O. Box 78, Pleasantville, NY 10570, USA (http://ebbs.english.vt.edu/olp/nyrsf/nyrsf.html). Essays, reviews and topical comment for the SF field from a ten-time Hugo award nominee. #126 includes Paul Kincaid and Gwyneth Jones on Starlight 2, Brian Stableford on The Boss in the Wall, Michael Bishop on Ingenious Pain, and Earl Wells on Murray Leinster, which #127 sees Stableford digging up dust in Neil Gaiman's past, Rob Latham on Richard Calder's revolutionary constructs, Gwyneth Jones on the Secret Feminist Cabal, and Darrell Schweitzer revisits Slan.

PROP #6, A4, 60pp, £3 (4/£10) from PROP, 31 Central Avenue, Farnworth, Bolton BL4 0AU (e-mail: chris.hart@dial.pipex.com). More than just another poetry magazine, PROP is a well-rounded arts magazine that also features reviews, interviews, opinion and prose in a bold and clean design. This issue features Adrian Slatcher on the 21st-century fictionalist and Chris Andrews on Taxi Driver and literary loneliness, plus an interview with Tom Paulin, fiction by Martin Henderson, and verse from over a dozen poets.

SCAR TISSUE #14, A5, 8pp, available for one SAE per issue from Tony Lee, Pigasus Press, 13 Hazely Combe, Arreton, Isle of Wight PO30 3AJ. Lively flysheet of poetry, fiction, artwork, reviews and small press adverts – in fact anything goes so long as you can say it in less than 500 words.

SCAVENGER'S NEWSLETTER #181, A5, 28pp, $2:50 (12/$17; Canada 12/$20; r.o.w. air 12/$26; r.o.w. surface 12/$17) from Janet Fox, 519 Ellinwood, Osage City, KS 66523-1329, USA (e-mail: foxscav1@jc.net; http://www.cza.com/scav/index.htm). Monthly newsletter for SF/F/H/mystery writers and artists with an interest in the small press. Market news, letters and reviews from USA, UK and elsewhere, plus further debate on whether to strip illustrations from fiction.

TALEBONES #14, A5, 76pp, $4:50 (4/$16; Canada 4/$20; r.o.w. 4/$24) from Talebones Magazine, 10531 SE 250th Place #104, Kent, WA 98031, USA (e-mail: talebones@nventure.com; http://www.nventure.com/talebones). SF and dark fantasy in a smart digest format with full colour cover, and winner of the Genre Writers Association Award. This issue's fiction comes from Stefano Donati, Elisabeth DeVos, Amy Sterling Casil, Robert N. Stephenson, Vera Nazarian, Catherine Macleod, and Syne Mitchell, plus an interview with Connie Willis.

TOUCHPAPER #10, A4, 2pp, 6/£2 (non-UK: one IRC per issue) from Tony Lee, Pigasus Press, 13 Hazely Combe, Arreton, Isle of Wight PO30 3AJ. Tony Lee reveals his own top five SF short stories and Sneyd and Geary review Webb and Boston, plus polemic, comment and reviews.

VECTOR #204, A4, 40pp, £2:25 (free to BSFA members) from the British Science Fiction Association, 60 Bournemouth Road, Folkestone, Kent CT19 5AZ (http://members.aol.com/tamaranth/), see website for membership rates. The best books of 1998 as polled by Vector's reviewers figure in this issue of the BSFA's critical journal, and no doubt every reader will find something there with which to disagree. Colin Odell and Mitch Le Blanc review the past year's notable genre-interest movies, Tanya Brown continues her look at classical music and SF, Maureen Kincaid Speller and Dave M. Roberts look examine Peter S. Beagle, and Gary S. Dalkin reappraises Richard C. Meredith. Plus loads of hardback, paperback, and small press reviews.

THE REALITY MACHINE by Cliff Burns, ISBN 0-9694853-2-8, A5, 135pp p/b, US$19:95/Can$21:95 from Black Dog Press, 1142 105th Street, North Battleford, Saskatchewan S9A 1S6, Canada. Another fine collection from one of Canada's most ideosyncratic writers, bringing together tales that have appeared in seven major anthologies, including The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror and Tesseracts, as well a variety of leading literary and genre magazines. Described by one critic as "literary 'Far Side' cartoons", Burns's stories range from darkest fantasy to full-blown SF, and are always distinguished by their originality and emotional power.

SALT SNAKE AND OTHER BLOODY CUTS by Simon Clark, 272pp p/b, $15 (ltd edn h/b (1 of 300 copies) $35, deluxe edn h/b (1 of 50), $65) from Silver Salamander Press, 4128 Woodland Park Ave N., Seattle, WA 98103, USA (e-mail: jpelan@cnw.com; http://www.horrornet.com/silver.htm). A handsome volume gathering over 20 horror stories from both popular anthologies and rare magazines, including such highly regarded tales as "Portrait of a Girl in a Graveyard", "Swallowing a Dirty Seed", and the eerie masterpiece "The Burning Doorway".

COLOUR OF DUST by A.C. Evans, ISBN 1-900152-28-2, 320pp p/b, £11:95 from Stride Publications, 11 Sylvan Road, Exeter, Devon EX4 6EW. A major new collection of poems and texts bringing together 30 years of writing. Distinguished by what Thomas Wiloch has called 'a brittle and cynical' mysticism, Evans draws on cut-up, SF, lists, mythology, haiku and wordplay to displace the reader with emotion, desire and profundity.

THE DARK SATANIC... by Paul Finch (Enigmatic Novellas #2), A5, 68pp, £4 from M. Sims, 1 Gibbs Field, Bishops Stortford, Herts CM23 4EY (e-mail: michael@micksims.force9.co.uk; http://www.epress.force9.co.uk). Two chilling novellas of terror from a widely-published author. A priest is haunted by his past in "The Dandy Dogs", where beasts prowl the night for souls, while "The Magic Lantern Show" reveals a horror from the mists of time as a detective hunts a murderer in Victorian Wigan.

Y2K SURVIVAL KIT by David Kopaska-Merkel, A5, 40pp, $5 from David C. Kopaska-Merkel, 1300 Kicker Road, Tuscaloosa, AL 35404, USA (e-mail: dragontea@earthlink.net; http://home.earthlink.net/~dragontea/index.htm). Science fiction poems of loss and recovery by the editor of Dreams and Nightmares and Star*Line. According to Kevin Donihe's introduction, the poet 'grasps the essence of distant events on a profound level', reading the future with a mystic's touch, to create a visionary 'survival kit ... to carry us past the millennial threshold'.

THE HOUSE OF THE NIGHTMARE by Edward Lucas White, 228pp ltd edn h/b (1 of 250 copies), $44 from Midnight House, 4128 Woodland Park Ave N., Seattle, WA 98103, USA (e-mail: jpelan@cnw.com; http://www.horrorcollector.com). Launching a new imprint from Silver Salamander Press dedicated to classic horror and weird fiction, The House of the Nightmare is the first collection of horror fiction by Edward Lucas White to be published in 70 years. It not only includes classic tales such as "Amina" and "Lukundoo", but also many stories from rare anthologies. Illustrated by noted artist Allen Kozsowski.

MOTHS by L.H. Maynard and M.P.N. Sims (Enigmatic Novellas #1), A5, 48pp, £4 from M. Sims, 1 Gibbs Field, Bishops Stortford, Herts CM23 4EY (e-mail: michael@micksims.force9.co.uk; http://www.epress.force9.co.uk). Heather and David, a well-off and happy young couple, travel to deepest Wiltshire to visit David's childhood friend Simon and his Japanese fiancée. But the Far Eastern influence starts to cause concern and, before they know it, David and Heather are confronted by the hostile and malevolent 'Tashkai'. This story combines oriental mythology with traditional supernatural horror, with the atmosphere building layer upon layer right up to the climax.

UNIQUENESS SYNDROME ANALYSIS by Steve Sneyd, A5, 16pp, free for SAE from Opossum Holler Tarot, 5094 N. County Rd 750 E, Orleans, IN 47452-9649, USA. Collection of short poetry presented in lo-fi photocopy montage format.

AMAZONIA by SuperCreeps, 12 mins audio cassette, enquire to SuperCreeps, 114 Drewry Lane, Derby DE22 3QU (e-mail: tripnoir@aol.com; http://www.itsuk.org.uk/supercreeps). Even though this demo tape features only three tracks, there's a good breadth of material here, from the rocky "Amazonia" to the more pensive "Flesh & the Animals". Given the fullness of the sound it's surprising that this is only SuperCreep's first recording, suggesting that this Derby-based synth-pop duo is a name to look out for in the future.

STRANGER THAN FICTION!, double audio CD, Don't Quit Your Day Job Records, OGL 82001-2, ISBN 1-893803-00-7, $25 from Don't Quit Your Day Job Records, P.O. Box 27901-120, San Francisco, CA 94127, USA (e-mail: kkgoldmark@aol.com; http://www.dqydj.com). Featuring over 40 authors singing their favourite songs, Stranger Than Fiction! includes vocal performances by Stephen King, Norman Mailer, Amy Tan, Maya Angelou, Jessica Mitford, Dave Berry and many others. An outgrowth of King's group The Rock Bottom Remainders, the album was produced over three years in eleven different studios, and features liner notes by Warren Zevon. All royalties from the CD go to the Special Fund of the PEN Writers Fund, which supports writers worldwide during times of crisis.

COLD TONNAGE BOOKS March 99, A5, 36pp, enquire to Cold Tonnage Books, Andy Richards, 22 Kings Lane, Windlesham, Surrey GU20 6JQ (fax: 0870 0548510; e-mail: andy@coldtonnage.demon.co.uk). Extensive selection of SF/F/H signed, hardback and limited editions, and many collectable paperbacks.